Despite its poor polling, Chris Hipkins reckons Labour will surprise the doubters and emerge victorious after next Saturday's election.
The Labour leader was energised at a number of walkabouts and meetings with supporters on Saturday after five days in COVID-19 isolation.
He made mention of his prediction that Labour would win the election on several occasions throughout the day.
"We are going to surprise everybody next Saturday," he said at a stop in Ōtara, Auckland.
"I think the mood out there has shifted in the last couple of days. I think we are going to see huge momentum in the next week behind the Labour team and we are going to win the election next Saturday."
Later at a phone bank in central Auckland, Hipkins again said he believed Labour would win.
"I absolutely do. I do," he said.
The most recent polling shows Labour still trailing National by a large margin.
The latest Newshub-Reid Research poll in late September had Labour on 26.5 percent, while National was on 39.1 percent. The right bloc of National, ACT and New Zealand First would have 66 seats on that poll's numbers, compared to just 54 for the left bloc.
A Taxpayers' Union-Curia poll released on Friday had National-ACT-NZ First on 67 seats, compared to Labour, the Greens and Te Pāti Māori on 53 seats.
Hipkins said Labour had seen a slight increase in support recently (it was up 1.4 points on the Taxpayers' Union-Curia poll), while National's had come down (National was up 0.9 on the Friday poll, but has come down in others).
"Our job over the next seven days is to make sure we turn people to vote for us," Hipkins said.
National leader Christopher Luxon, who was in Whanganui on Saturday, said his party was "getting a great reaction across the country".
The Whanganui electorate is currently held by Labour's Steph Lewis, but it was held by National MPs between 2005 and 2020.
"Over the last few weeks and, frankly, for most of this year, we have been making big efforts to come into marginal seats. This is, I think, the third or fourth time I have been to Whanganui this year."
He said his message to New Zealanders was the election is up to them.
